Half a Vanguard
by Suekeiichi Kaiton
Summary: Is it just me or did everyone decide to write Vandread/Ranma fics overnight? Did I start a closet revolution?
1. It's Been Too Long...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, Vandread is property of Pioneer, Gonzo, and Media Factory; Ranma is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and a lot more companies that I can't remember to list.  
  
---Title---  
  
Half a Vanguard Prologue  
  
Being the second part of the '1/2' series  
  
By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton  
  
---Tarak---  
  
"Women are monsters…" Ranma turned away from the blatant propaganda announcement and continued down the corridor towards his quarters aboard the newly refurbished starcruiser, the Ikazuchi. He was dressed in a military officer's uniform, a sign that he had graduated from the Training Corps. The men loitering about in the hallways gave him no mind, not even bothering to greet the familiar face as he brushed past them. If the Minister didn't fly off the handle and announce that it would launch early, the Ikazuchi would leave Tarak in two hours. He had to get packed.  
  
The past ten years had been hell for a man such as Ranma, with such a long span of time since he'd laid eyes on a curvaceous female form he'd begun to feel the drain on his ki. Passing himself off as a first-class citizen was kind of tricky but he supposed it was worth it, after all wasn't he going to go off into space and fight the pirate Women of Mejale? He shook his head as the public service announcement exploded off the viewscreen, replaced by the bald visage of their Minister, supposedly a direct descendant of their progenitor "Grandpa". Ranma scoffed. Out of all of the populace, he was sure only he and "Grandpa" knew that the whole female-innards-eating rouse was just that - even though he had never met the mysterious leader of Tarak. Although giving the outward appearance of someone in his thirties, Ranma was in fact far older and wiser.  
  
From what he had been able to ascertain, the situation concerning the gender wars started because of the cowardly actions of "Grandpa" and the first generation colonists as they dumped the females in the Mejale system and ran away to Tarak. Could it have been that one of them realized the tremendous power that could be derived from the joining of male and female? Was that the reasoning behind the split? Such questions were better left unanswered Ranma believed as he slung his medkit over a shoulder and headed down to the event room.  
  
When he arrived the party was in full swing, the hundred plus Vanguard pilots milling about as the Minister began winding down.  
  
"Good evening, Ranma." A tall man in his mid-twenties with raven black hair cascading over his right eye appeared behind him. He was dressed in an officer's jumpsuit similar in design to Ranma's but was missing the black stripes running down the sleeves to designate a commanding position.  
  
"Evening, McFile, how long has the Minister been talking?"  
  
"About fifteen minutes."  
  
"Ah, good, he should be winding down about now." Ranma turned to the screen just as Baldy's 'stirring' speech about their sacred mission finished with a comment about 'making "Grandpa" proud'. "I think the idiot has something in store for us." With a deafening roar the thrusters engaged and the ship began to rock back and forth as it lifted off the ground. "Hmm, we're leaving two hours ahead of schedule."  
  
"Aren't you going to ask about Shinji?" Duelo McFile handed his commanding officer a glass of retrograde alcohol from a weaving waiter's tray.  
  
"How is he?" Ranma wasn't paying his partner much mind. "In elementary school by now? Third grade?"  
  
"At the Soun Tendo Memorial education station." Why they named a school after such an insignificant crybaby was beyond Ranma's powers of deduction. "You know the one, after all you are paying for his schooling."  
  
"The tall glass building across the canyon from the Genma Saotome Institute for the Criminally Insane?" Ranma laughed his ass off when he'd found out about that, it seemed fitting that such a place be named after his father.  
  
"Bingo."  
  
"I trust you've been well." Ranma crumpled the thin metal cup and tossed it over his shoulder, the heavy ball landing perfectly in a nearby waste basket. "Let me guess, you left your future profile completely blank." The way Duelo looked away told him he'd hit the nail on the head. "I knew it…"  
  
"It had nothing to do with you. Besides, Shinji will grow up a first class citizen like the two of us. I didn't need to look after him anymore, the officer training corps. will take care of his needs." Ranma leaned back against a window as the ship left Tarak's atmosphere , the explosions of exhibition dogfights lighting his eyes. Duelo didn't meet Ranma's gaze.  
  
"Hey, hey! You two look like you'd appreciate this…look at this beauty!" The blond haired boy with the foppish haircut burst into their area, breaking the tension as he held aloft a container of pellets. "It's a brand new recipe, made with only the finest quality ingredients, I guarantee you won't have another opportunity to taste something like this again!" Bart Garsus, grandson of the President of Garsus foods - supplier of food pellets to the military, didn't even bat an eyelash as he interrupted an obviously personal conversation.  
  
"Bart Garsus." Ranma grit his teeth as the annoying youth flitted around his head like a deranged hummingbird. "I should've known your father'd put a member of the family aboard."  
  
"You know my dad?" Bart dropped the red striped white pellet back into its case and looked from Ranma to Duelo.  
  
"We've met before. Now go away, there are some hungry people over there." He pointed at the closed doors leading into the kitchen. Bart ran away as was his wont to do, Duelo giving the entire situation a sarcastic smirk. Ranma turned back to the windows as the Van-Type promo film began playing. "Aren't you scared, Duelo? About going into space to fight women?"  
  
"I find the idea fascinating, there is so much I'd like to study about their physiology and culture."  
  
"So you did become a doctor."  
  
"Indeed, I'm here as an assistant to the ship's Medical commander."  
  
"You just signed up because you knew I'd be here, didn't you?" Those explosions were getting closer, if Ranma wasn't mistaken it almost seemed as though the elegant weaving ships were female Dreads…  
  
"That was part of it, yes, but the overwhelming urge was-"  
  
"It's a third class citizen!" Someone was shouting at the short boy clinging to the cod-piece of a Vanguard.  
  
"What are you doing? Get him off of that!" The Minister's bald head began to sweat in frustration as Hibiki Tokai sprang from the robot and onto the bust of "Grandpa".  
  
"Get down!" Ranma leapt from the window and tackled McFile to the floor as guards came forward and dragged the pathetic man away down the storage cells. A craft whizzed by the window and shook the ship as a thin scratch from the object's wing appeared on the reinforced glass. "What the hell do those idiots think they're doing!?" He helped the long-haired man up off the floor. Suddenly a scratchy command issued forth from the speakers.  
  
"All pilots suit up and get to your Vanguards! This is a pirate assault by the Women of Mejale!" The crowd began to scatter to the locker rooms as explosions rained down on the Ikazuchi's shields. Ranma and Duelo ran towards the medical wing, knowing that with inexperienced pilots they were going to have a lot of injuries, that is if they survived the first assault.  
  
As the klaxons wailed and the emergency red lights spun to life, Ranma looked back at the window and the thin line etched into it's surface by a razor-sharp silver wing. He seemed to sense something in the air. "I feel women…heh, it's been too long."  
  
---One short one-sided fight later---  
  
The attack had been swift and carefully planned. The women's advanced Dreads had penetrated the hull of the old Ikazuchi and disgorged an invasion party which quickly took control of the ship's functions. Now Ranma, Duelo, and the rest of the men gathered in the medical wing were standing in line as they waited for their fate. Ranma himself entertained no ideas that the women would eat his innards or do any number of horrible things to him, he was smarter but the same could not be said for the pirates other prisoners.  
  
"Move along quietly now and you won't be harmed." An extremely flat- chested girl in a skin-tight blue and white tunic waved her ring-laser at them threateningly. Ranma took the time to walk closer to her and sniff her hair, it had been a long time since he'd seen a woman, let alone slept with one, he wondered if he'd be rusty…  
  
"Listen here, Men of Tarak, if you follow our instructions you will make it back to Tarak alive but if you attempt to resist we will kill you. Is this understood?" Buzam Calessa strutted out from the battle bridge and spoke to the male group. Ranma's eyes trailed over her soft curves and the generous view of her washboard stomach. It seemed like every inch of her bare skin was oiled and toned, to a man who hadn't the experience of a woman in nearly a decade, she seemed like the proverbial life-saving 'burning bush'. He licked his lips. "Take them to the escape pods."  
  
"Ow! Paiway that hurts!" Barnette Orangello winced as the bubbly nurse applied alcohol to her laser burn. The skin was burned and blistered, she knew that it would take weeks for the scars to fade, the thought of having a single blemish on her impeccable body nearly brought her to tears. "You know I have sensitive skin."  
  
Ranma and Duelo stopped short at the scream, both feeling stirrings of that good old physician's bedside manner bubbling to the surface.  
  
"Hey you two! Get moving!" Another bodysuited attacker waved her ring in their faces menacingly.  
  
Meanwhile Hibiki Tokai awoke to a plush, squishy part of the female anatomy in his face. He had no idea what to do with it, the poor bastard.  
  
---The pirate ship---  
  
"BC report your status." Magno Vivian, captain of the pirates leaned back in her command chair as the newer sections of Ikazuchi interlocked again in Tarak orbit, obviously sans the old section which they had invaded.  
  
"This is Buzam. We have everything under control, the ship is ours, Parfet is just trying to reroute controls to the secondary bridge we discovered so we can dock."  
  
"Excellent. Is there anything of interest on the ships that I should be aware of?"  
  
"There is a contingent of Vanguards aboard, a Paksis Pragma power core larger than any I've ever seen, and a fully stocked medical wing." Magno shifted her walking stick as she deliberated.  
  
"We'll maneuver the ship to your location, we need those medical supplies. Gascogne will board as well to investigate the Paksis core."  
  
"I strongly oppose moving closer to the ship, The Ikazuchi is readying to fire." Buzam's voice seemed to waver over the bad radio communication.  
  
"It doesn't matter, we need those supplies. Where else are we supposed to find them? We are pirates after all."  
  
"Understood."  
  
Magno sighed as the line was cut. "She really needs to loosen up."  
  
---Vanguard entry dock, escape pod bay---  
  
"Keep moving!" Ranma and Duelo looked out upon an expanse of moaning or marginally injured women laid out in the makeshift sickbay. The sight of all the burns and cuts was all they needed to break out of the line and stride to the lockers, pulling out a long labcoat each. Two female guards noticed their mutiny and leapt to attack, their gold rings pulsing angry red as their fingers inched closer to the triggers. "You can't just do what you like, get back in line." The shorter of the two sneered.  
  
Ranma smirked and brought his head down, laughing at their ignorance. "Don't worry ladies, I'm a doctor." He looked straight into the short brown-haired girl's eyes and flashed his patented lady-killer grin. Both sentry's hearts fluttered at the handsome man, particularly the short one who seemed to bear the brunt of his affections.  
  
Paiway watched the exchange from the shadows and jotted a quick note to herself, completely ignoring the flood of injured women around her.  
  
"Duelo, grab all the medkits from the lockers, I'll look over the injured so we know who to treat first." Ranma brushed past the brown- haired girl, pinching her bottom as he passed and winked. "You need to loosen up, I mean you no harm." The playful grin disappeared as another group of injured stumbled into the docking bay. "Hurry up Duelo, we have work to do." Just then an urgent message spurted out from the intercom.  
  
"Weapons system detected on the Ikazuchi, all personnel retreat back to the umbilical cord for evacuation! I repeat, weapons system detected, all hands abandon ship!" The women had just finished flushing the other men out into space when the message crackled over their heads, causing mass panic and hysteria.  
  
Buzam looked down at the injured through a window on her way back to the bridge and cursed the men for doing this. "Captain? We have injured here that we cannot transport."  
  
"We've detected missiles heading towards you now, BC get off that ship!"  
  
"I'm sorry Captain but I can't do that, we can't leave half our crew to die here." Parfet ran by Buzam carrying a jumble of wires.  
  
"Whatever happens is destiny." Magno watched as the missiles arched separately towards both of their ships.  
  
---To be continued---  
  
Should I or should I not? And for those of you muttering about how many one shots I have out there, this is actually a sequel to a fic I haven't completed yet, I've just been watching too much Vandread.  
  
Remember to leave me a review or email me, your response determines which fics I work on, right now I'm working on more "1/2 Moon", "WAWN?", and "Sailor?" 


	2. Sweet Temptation

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, Vandread is property of Pioneer, Gonzo, and Media Factory; Ranma is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and a lot more companies that I can't remember to list.

---Title---

Half a Vanguard Chapter One

Being the second part of the '1/2' series

By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton

---Unknown space---

"All hands, report your status." Magno looked up from the HUD and out into the blackness of unknown space, a veritable ocean of star forms she'd never seen before. Wherever they were, she knew how destructive the male missiles could be now, if only she'd know that beforehand perhaps they wouldn't be in this mess now. "BC! Report."

"Captain, apparently the Paksis core has ruptured, spilling crystal all over the ship."

"Is it any danger to us?"

"Captain there's Paksis coming in from the exhaust shafts, it's beginning to build up in the Engine room." Gascogne Rheingau's voice rang clearly from the underbelly of the pirate ship.

"Can you get rid of it?"

"No, not with the lasers. We're having a hard time just keeping it out of our core."

"Very well, do what you can Gascogne. BC I'm going to land on the Ikazuchi, I want to see the Paksis core myself." Magno depressed a switch off to the side of her armrest and the chair she was sitting in twirled 180 degrees to shoot down a conveyor belt.

"Captain I don't think that's a good idea, the ship is very unstable."

"I have to see this with my own two eyes." The aging captain walked down the corridor with a single guard, eventually reaching the Dread docking bay where a shuttle was ready to take her to the male ship. As the emptiness of space filled her vision all Magno could consider was how the Paksis was slowly eating away at the hulls of both ships, at the rate it was being consumed soon there would be nothing of either ship left. Thin filaments of crystal where stretching out into the surrounding space to snatch up every scrap of metal or plastic cast adrift by the explosion of the Muremasa, sucking all the debris to itself to initiate repairs.

As the light shuttle landed on the thin layer of crystal blanketing the docking bay, Magno, Buzam and Parfet Balblair disembarked. Jura Basil Elden, and Meia Gisborn met them in the docking bay, the Paksis crackling underfoot. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

"I'm sorry you had to come all the way out here, Captain." Meia nodded her head and followed Magno as she slowly walked towards the open doors which connected the Vanguard storage room with the docking bay.

"Nonsense, Meia, I had to see this. BC how are the injured?" The platinum-haired woman walked next to the shorter and shut the doors behind the group.

"They're fine, captain, Paiway is taking them all to decontamination and sickbay. She fears for airborne male diseases." Magno scoffed and slid her cane into a pool of coagulating blood.

"How many times have I told that girl they don't carry diseases, they're just like us only different."

"How much sense does that make?" Jura remarked under her breath. She wished Barnette was there with her. Magno looked to Dita and the young male body unconscious nearby.

"The man Dita was chasing." Meia helpfully explained. Magno scoffed.

"It's been a while since I last saw a manbut did their faces always look this silly? Where are the others?" Magno began moving to the main corridor, the group of two guards and Buzam following her. Parfet tarried a little longer to take samples of the Paksis. Meia, Jura and Dita split up to search the rest of the ship, at least that was the excuse Dita gave to sneak off to the observation deck.

"We're taking that one to the brig, the others are under observation. Meia's team is going to sweep the ship for any others."

"Excellent work, BC. What have you observed about the other two?"

"They showed no fear when we attacked, they must be Elite. For our safety I had them placed in separate cells."

"Take me to them." Buzam gestured past her and the foursome made their way deeper into the craft.

---The Vanguard launch room---

Bart Garsus kicked the plate with all his might and finally knocked the two inch piece of cheap metal off the statue of "Grandpa", freeing himself from the claustrophobic hell of being trapped. No sooner had he crawled away from the wreckage than Meia leveled her laser ring at his face, effectively stopping any notions of escape. Of course, no one cared.

---Holding cells---

"Duelo McFile. And do you have a name, Mr. Third Class Citizen?" Duelo watched as the younger man gnashed his teeth in anger.

"Don't mock me! I'm not just your ordinary Third Class Citizen!"

"You were the one who disrupted the opening ceremony. How did you get aboard?" Now he was intrigued, if a Third Class citizen was able to make it aboard the Ikazuchi undetected than perhaps he shouldn't be a Third Class Citizen.

"I'm just full of surprises." The boy replied with a grin. Duelo smiled and looked down at his shackles, wondering where they'd taken Ranma. His musings were cut short as the egg-shaped robotic interface rolled back to life, sprouting arms and legs.

"Pyoro?" Hibiki looked into the cartoonish bulging eyes on the display screen, a sweatdrop growing down his neck.

"Youdidn't you?" Soon the interrogations were cut short as Buzam entered with a contingent of two guards, one with short green hair and miniscule breasts, the other with long brown tresses.

"I'd appreciate it if you came with me."

---Brig---

"Well, well, well, one of the Elite on this ship?" Magno entered the cellblock and plodded closer to the activated green laser-bars of the only occupied cell. Her cane punctuated every other step with a hollow tap on the durasteel floor. Ranma looked up from his lap as he sat propped up against a wall, smoothing back his hair as her features were illuminated by the energy bars. There were no other lights on in the block.

The brig was situated next to the holding cells in an area remodeled as the Ikazuchi was restored. The brig was dark and narrow with more of an unsettling psychological effect than the holding cells, though if Ranma felt its impact he did not show any sign of discomfort.

"Good evening," he offered, giving her a friendly wave.

"You seem curiously unafraid of us, stranger, I'd like to know why."

"Let's just say that I'm not like the normal Tarak sheep and leave it at that." Magno smiled, it had been a long time since she'd had a decent battle of wits.

"Oh? So you aren't afraid that I'll order you killed and placed over a spit so that my crew can fill their bellies?" Ranma smiled knowingly and looked her straight in the eye.

"We both know you aren't cannibals and even if you were I doubt you'd like my taste." It seemed the usual methods of interrogation would be ineffective. "Why did you attack this ship?" The guards on either side of her flexed their fingers to activate their weapons, their white-gloved thumbs dangerously close to the firing stud. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Magno waved them off with a gesture and gazed back intently at the creature in the cage. "I'm doing the questioning today, young man, and as for why we attacked all you need to know is that we were simply taking back what was ours."

"I know all about that, the Ikazuchi is yours, I'm not going to stop you." That was surprising. The guards didn't know what to do any more, they wanted to zap him to shut his insolent mouth but the captain was brushing off his insults. "What do you plan on doing with me?"

"We might just eat you on basic principle." Magno replied dryly 

"Oh, someone here will eat mesooner or later." Ranma replied with a licentious smile, his eyes running over the curvaceous figures of the guards. If Magno understood the dual nature of his statement she gave no sign.

She motioned to her guards and the two women deactivated the bars and hauled him up off the floor. Ranma went willingly, a chill running up his spine as their breasts and hips pressed against his body. He'd show them a whole new perspective on mankind in time.

As for the moment, he followed Magno out into the corridor and towards the Officer's onsen. Paksis coated the walls and floor, obviously something had happened during that massive explosion other than cuts and burns. Another thing that bothered him was the lack of response from Tarak, assuming them hadn't entered a wormhole from the blast of the Muremasa the male forces should have been on the scene already.

They entered the Officer's onsen as Meia brought in Bart at gunpoint. Duelo looked up at Ranma, still wearing the medical trenchcoat he'd taken from a locker before the explosion, but said nothing. Buzam looked at the newcomers and gestured to Meia, the Dread attacks leader dressed in a form-fitting gray and black jumpsuit that hugged her curves. She threw Bart down on the bench and Ranma quietly took a seat.

---The observation deck---

"Ohnone of these match." Ezra looked through the constellation finder Parfet had whipped up but was dismayed when nothing in the vicinity seemed to match any known formation. Dita was leaning over the railing almost drunkenly, still shaken from the explosion and her excitement in finding a 'real live alien'.

"Wow, this place is so different!" The auburn-haired girl was dangling her head over the partition and staring down at the immense oblong stalagmites forced through the soil of the garden by the spread of Paksis. "It looks like Mejale!"

"We always thought Paksis was just an energy source but it completely restored the ship."

"Yeahalien power is so amazing! If I ever get abducted-" She was quickly distracted by the movements of several far-off lights, too little to be stars and moving too quickly. "Look! Look, Ezra! It's a UFO!"

---The Officer's onsen---

"So let me get this straight." Magno took a sample from her gelatin cup and pointed at the group of men with her spoon. Buzam was standing on her right side, Meia on her left and the two escorts were still standing behind them, wary already of the men. "The two Elites are doctors, and the little one is-"

"An attacker." Meia regarded him with a hostile glare. Not to mention that the black metal face-plate she wore freaked Hibiki out but such things were not her concern.

"Now wait just a minute-!!!" Hibiki stood up to declare that he was a lowly mechanics operator when Bart's soft leather boot embedded itself in his stomach. With a wince and a groan, Hibiki Tokai's exclamation was cut violently short. Ranma just let his eyes take in the two female forms on either side of Magno, it was obvious he was dealing with a gender unaccustomed to male eyes and as such dressed as was comfortable, completely oblivious to a man's reactions to seeing such expanses of female flesh. Then again, it wasn't like the males knew what to do anyway so it didn't present a distraction. With a grin he thought that even if the women walked around stark naked the men wouldn't bat an eye, although it would certainly elicit unconscious side-effects such as the one between his legs as Buzam tapped her foot.

"I saw him entering one of the Van-types before the explosion." Magno took another bite of the wobbly snack before regarding Ranma.

"You I don't understand. The others cowardice or feigned detachment," Duelo flinched, "is understandable. You're casual attitude about this situation distressed me." She waved the glinting piece of flatware in his general direction.

"We should get rid of them, the situation is already unstable they would just make matters worse."

"Let's not be too hasty, Meia, I want to see what these men are capable of before we throw they out the airlock." She stared menacingly at the youngest two of the lot. Bart and Hibiki's white faces coupled with the sweat pouring down their faces told the aging captain that at least her rouse was effective on those two, now it was just a matter of the others. Her train of thought was broken as a shockwave threw them forward, followed swiftly by an explosion. Klaxons wailed in the distance. The ornate lacquered-bronze dish Magno was eating out of crashed to the floor and shattered.

"What's going on?" Buzam snapped into her communicator.

"My snack"

"Bad aliens are attacking!" Dita's voice came through in short bursts over Buzam's radio and everyone present sweatdropped.

"Parfet! Can we move the ship?"

"I'm doing my best but we have no control! The self-defense system's the only thing remotely working!" 

"Dreads are going out!" Meia dashed through the doors and ran down the hallway through the Paksis crystal and towards the Vanguard hangar where their Dreads lay. As her coltish legs pumped hard to push her through the darkened corridors she was already calling her team. "Barnette?"

The vain green-haired woman was crying as icy water drenched her undergarments in the Jacuzzi. Paiway was still diligently writing in her notebook as the other women pounded on the glass window. "Paiway locked us in here and we can't get out!"

"Miss Gasco, how are the Dreads?" The hangar was just around the next bend.

"The Paksis swallowed up all the Dreads and is blocking the runway, we won't be able to deploy. And it's not Gasco! It's Gascogne!"

"Jura?" Apparently she'd been wrong, the hangar was not around the next bend but rather another long run past the exploded Paksis core of the Ikazuchi. If Meia was annoyed by that turn of events, which she was, she didn't grimace but rather frowned in concentration and ran across the bridge overlooking Parfet's operations.

"I'm almost at the Dreads, Dita's with me." The blonde rushed through the crystal in black high-heels almost dragging the ditzy Dita behind her as they slammed open the hangar doors. "Are those really ours?" The Dreads were half encased in Paksis but the cockpits were still above the level of coverage.

"Wow!" Dita looked up at her heavily modified Dread and ran her hands along its polished blue steel. Meia arrived just as Jura got settled in her redesigned craft, scrambling to her ship and almost ripping off the entry hatch in her haste.

"It doesn't look like the interface has changed much, we should be able to pilot them." With that, the three Dreads shot out the hangar bay and into the embrace of dark space and the octopi-looking alien attackers.

---The Officer's onsen---

"Crew transfer is complete."

"BC, I leave the bridge to you." Magno sat huddled over her cane and watched the prisoners as Buzam started towards the door. Another blast rocked the ship at that moment, a direct hit by the alien powers on the pirate ship, utterly destroying the stern and sending shockwaves up the Paksis umbilical cord, resulting in the onsen wall collapsing on the green-haired guard. "BC take the attacker with you." Hibiki followed the platinum-tressed first officer out the doors and back to the crystalline corridors.

The brown-haired guard knelt by her fallen friend and started to pull her from the debris when Ranma and Duelo's twin exclamations of 'Stop!' shook her from action. The two doctors leapt over the shower mirror and examined the injured woman, clearing a bit of rock dust from her face. A thin trickle of blood seeped from her mouth. "You shouldn't move her like that, you'll just make the injury worse. I have to get this woman to sickbay." At Magno's nod, Duelo and the other female lifted the body and walked briskly out. Ranma was left standing by the ruins of a wall as he regarded Magno.

Bart, seeing an opportunity, took advantage of the situation with his (less than) silver tongue.

"Well, it seems that you're in need of help." He leaned casually against the bathing faucets.

"What do you have in mind?" Magno narrowed her eyes.

"I say we call a truce and fill in each other's vacant positions, besides which you need me."

"Oh?"

"I'm actually a helmsman." He gave her a superior smirk.

"Oh really? Well, I suppose I can agree to that, for the moment." Bart smirked smugly and offered his hand to the old woman only to have it knocked away by a hard rap on the knuckles by way of Magno's cane. He looked up at her cold flinty eyes, she'd seen right through his act. "I don't have any intention of getting chummy, young man, I'll still be treating you as a prisoner."

Bart couldn't do anything except nod.

Ranma walked out with the two of them but broke away silently to find the centre of the ship.

---The Vanguard bay---

"What should we do about him?"

"Leave him, he has nowhere else to go. Just like us." Buzam scoffed and turned on a heel, walking away back down the dark hallway. Leaving Hibiki Tokai in charge of his own destiny.

"What is your name?" The former Third Class Citizen of Tarak jumped to the ceiling in fright as Ranma appeared behind him. After calming down and growling at the Elite officer, and also walking back the three meters he'd jumped, Hibiki took a defiant tone.

"What's it to you?" The question brought to mind the odd hallucinations before he'd awoken after the explosion.

"I don't mean anything derogatory, I just want to know your name so I don't have to call you 'Third Class Citizen'." Ranma stood with both his hands at his sides, the breeze of growing Paksis swirling his coat around his legs.

"It's Hibiki Tokai." The young worker looked dubiously at the proffered hand as if it were some kind of trick.

"I'm Ranma Saotome, nice to meet you." He took Hibiki's hand and shook it, smiling at the youth's odd stare. "What's wrong?"

"You're an Elite, why would you shake my hand?" The Elites never did that, hell the Prime Minister never even visited the factories, the hypocrites.

"Let's just say that I don't put much stock in caste, okay? Now what are you doing here?" He'd heard the whole argument and Buzam's speech. "Why aren't you fighting, Hibiki? If you know how to use a Vanguard you should help out."

"Why? They're just women! Women are our enemies!" Ranma slapped him hard, a firm crack on the cheek with the back of his hand. Hibiki felt something move inside his head and saw blackness and stars for a few moments, falling to the flawless floor. The commanding officer crouched low and watched as the pilot candidate came to his senses slowly. The boy was smart he could tell but misguided, much like a sixteen year old Duelo had been when they first met. He was too buried under societal stigmata and prejudice to see the truth in front of him.

"You don't know women, Hibiki Tokai, they could have thrown us out the airlock immediately but they didn't. This isn't about gender or sex, little one, the women are fighting to keep this ship intact so we can live! It's only fair we do the same!" Ranma pointed to the holoscreen report station a few paces down the hall. "If you can do anything at all you can bring yourself up from Third class to Elite, it's just a matter of will. You can pilot a Van-Type, anyone can, now get out there now and fight for your life!" Ranma grasped the steel braided coil on his wrists and ripped it to pieces, letting the remains of the handcuffs clink to the floor. The echo seemed to awaken Hibiki from his attentive stupor and the pig-tailed man could see a new flame burn behind his eyes.

As Hibiki called to the bridge, Ranma set back on his way to the core.

---The Bridge---

"What the-!?!?" Bart glanced at the dais at the end of the flying platform. Magno and Pyoro were standing next to him as he tentatively took a step forward.

"You don't know what it is?" If he'd been lying she'd see him skinned alive.

"Uhn-n-n-no! Of c-course I know what it isit's just one of our secret weapons. I'm s-surprised to see it on the ship." Magno gave him a kick in the ass to get him going as he neared the shimmering surface of the ship's interface. "You just g-g-go like th-his." Bart stepped lightly on the blue disk and screamed like a little girl as gooey tendrils reached out and pulled him in, leaving the entire bridge crew astonished to see a human sucked into a computer. Even Magno was impressed.

"Th-this is a secret weapon of the men?"

"He doesn't get it at all." Just then Buzam and Ezra arrived.

"Where's the attacker, BC?" Before the commander could reply, Hibiki's face appeared on the main screen, his eyes flickering with something different than fear. Determination perhaps? Or was it anger?

"Why is he-"

"Let me handle this captain." Buzam stepped in front of Magno and addressed the man. "What is it? Do you want to fight?"

"Yes! I want to fight!" The bridge was silenced by that exclamation and cowed into awe by the courage of a man. Even Magno was impressed. "I want to protect this ship and everyone on it!"

There was a pause. Dita and Juri flew by the bridge canopy, chased by alien systems.

"Butcan you tell me how to get to the hangar?"

---Fast forward---

"I have to take that last step! I have to see it for myself!" The Vanguard ripped through the invaders with its vibro-sword as it sped towards the seed system. The ovular ship looking almost organic with it's moist and scaled surface, that appearance didn't quite connect with the hundreds of attackers flowing from it's gaping maw, making it all too apparent that the 'organic' was in fact technological.

"Mr. Alien!!" Dita Liebely sped after him in her Dread, the polish blue metallic paint unscratched even under constant barrages by the unknown creatures (presuming that they are organic).

"Dita! Break away and regroup!" Meia watched the horrid spectacle unfold as Dita's Dread came dangerously close to colliding with the Vanguard.

"You little fool come back here! You're going to get killed!" Jura swerved to avoid an Octopi and blasted the three that popped into her sights.

"Mr. Alien's going to save us! I just know it!"

On the bridge of the Ikazuchi, Magno and Buzam watched the fight. The ship was fleeing from the Seed Ship but couldn't outrun it nor could their forces regroup.

"Do you think this boy can do it?" Magno asked.

"I think that if he does succeed, common sense will be turned on its head." Buzam replied, fascinated by the way the Vanguard easily evaded the octopi attacks. Dita was coming awfully close though

Hibiki dodged the first pass by Dita just barely and flew around the seed ship so that he could attack it from behind. What he didn't realize was that there floated a contingent of sixteen Octopi, which circled and incapacitated him from attacking further. The Seed ship, realizing it was in danger, spun around to face the attacker. Unfortunately Dita's Dread was following Hibiki's Van-Type so closely that she had no time to compensate for his sudden stop and everything exploded in a haze of white and flame.

"Dita" Meia watched as the Seed Ship seemingly suffered no damage and turned again to face the Ikazuchi. She wouldn't let her wing-woman's death be in vain!

"Little fool" The blonde watched as mangled parts of Octopi rained on her Dread's viewscreen.

"I guess the miracle didn't happen." The bridge was quiet in respect for their pilot.

"Pyoro?" The Navi-robot was the first to detect the new growth of energy at the centre of the blast.

An enormous mecha floated out of the flames, metal still red with heat but gradually turning to a deep blue as the vacuum cooled it's surface. Everyone's eyes were wide as the machine flared it's wrist cannons and streaked towards the rear of the enemy system, blazing a corona of green in its wake.

"Is that Dita?" Meia and Jura asked, confused as all hell.

Magno and Buzam had no response.

Duelo was setting the guard's broken bones by hand when the news first reached him and after he'd heard the details, went right back to work.

Paiway Underberg was still trying to deal with the injured.

Barnette Orangello was still freezing her shapely curvaceous behind off in the decontamination room.

The monstrous mecha grabbed hold of the Seed Ship's rear and spun it around, digging its fingers into the shut lips to open the immense mouth that spawned the Octopi-cubes. Ripping the closing mechanism, its nacelles flipped over the shoulders of the gestalt robot and fired green death down its throat.

The system bulged with the influx of power, stretching, trying to accommodate the burning fire of destruction shot into it's body, but eventually surrendered ending it's life in a fantastic explosion. The green blast beam, however, continued on its way after bursting through the invader, heading straight at the Ikazuchi.

"Shields! All power to forward shields!" Magno stood up from her seat as the string of light threatened to overtake them.

"We don't have any! I can't control the system!" Buzam closed her eyes, prepared to die for her captain and her ship.

"Strafe left then! Get us out of the beam's range!" Magno was virtually screaming at Bart as he floated in the jelly interface of the new Ikazuchi. The 'helmsman' was powerless to evade the death ray.

A green light illuminated the bridge and blinded all those watching incoming Death. Everyone on the ship closed their eyes and prepared for the end

Only to find themselves alive and well. Magno and Buzam looked up at the observation screen and found the entire ship surrounded in a yellow glow. The older woman sighed and called Bart.

"Good work, young man, but you waited a little long didn't you?"

"It wasn't me! I have no idea where it's coming from!" Bart floated around a bit and looked at the displays. "I can't activate a shield like this." The green beam from the Vandread finally flickered out and died a moment later, the yellow shield going along with it into the realms of the unknown.

"Where did the shield come from? Ezra?" Buzam looked out at the returning Vandread construct and narrowed her eyes in confusion as it burst into a bright white strobe of light before reappearing as the individual Dread and Vanguard.

"There are no signs that the ship generated sufficient power to deflect such a pulse of energy, captain, whatever it was we couldn't have generated it"

"Which means we have another mystery on our hands." Magno rolled her eyes and fanned herself. "Recall the Dreads, I want a debriefing session."

---The core---

Ranma stepped away from the Paksis Pragma and drew his aura back, the danger had passed. Sighing he sat down on the floor, exhausted from using so much of his severely depleted ki reserves to protect the ship. His eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped to the floor to sleep. He needed a woman.

---To be continued---


	3. These Things We Need

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, Vandread is property of Pioneer, Gonzo, and Media Factory; Ranma is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and a lot more companies that I can't remember to list.  
  
---Title---  
  
Half a Vanguard Chapter Two  
  
Being the second part of the '1/2' series  
  
By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton  
  
---Briefing room---  
  
"Our ship has been completely engulfed by the crystal. The bridge, residential and engine quarters have been completely destroyed. The crew is now in the process of moving into the residential sections of the Ikazuchi. The bridge has finished sliding and is now situated over the ship's garden." Buzam switched the monitor to the progress of the Paksis as it swallowed their ship. Magno and Meia were sitting at the briefing table. Outside, the streak of a Dread could be seen leaving the shields of the ship as debris from the Seed Ship drifted in the vacuum.  
  
"What about the Dreads?"  
  
"Yes, captain." Buzam switched the hologram again until the Dread platform appeared. "Fortunately the Dread platform and Reg were unaffected by the change, we're currently in the middle of installing the necessary equipment and uploading the hardware. During our renovation we discovered that this ship hasn't been used in a long time, the wires and basic connections and rotting and decayed."  
  
"Perfect. Meia could you give me some good news?" Magno fanned herself as the blue-haired Dread commander shook herself out of her thoughts. "What about the shield?"  
  
"Parfet says that none of the ships systems were capable of creating the shield so it must have been due to outside interference." Meia switched the holographic display to the new Dread platform as Buzam sat down across from her.  
  
"Great. And I suppose she has no idea how the men's Vanguards can combine with our Dreads?"  
  
"Yes, captain." Magno sighed. It was getting too hot on the ship. "The Dreads that were changed by the Paksis no longer fit in the standard platform, we've modified the cargo hold to house them." Buzam changed the signal again as Meia wound down.  
  
"Although it's hard to believe, we're a long way from Mejale. It will take us approximately 270 days to arrive back in the Mejale system."  
  
"Ohh…what did we do to have this happen…?" Magno shook her head. "What about the enemy system?"  
  
"Uh…since we were short on help I sent some volunteers." Meia had the good grace to look away at the observation window.  
  
"Volunteers?"  
  
---The debris field---  
  
"Wow! Look at the UFOs Miss Gasco! Look, there's an Adamsky UFO!" Dita was taking pictures of the floating trash as her Dread neared the still smoking remains of the Seed Ship. Gascogne, frowning because of her position, grumbled as the ditz narrowly missed the spinning cog the size of a jumbo jet from old Earth, a cog that could have sheared off the entire front of the Dread in one sweep.  
  
"Would you please watch where you've flying?"  
  
---Holding cells---  
  
"So there I was, knowing that I had to survive to fight for the freedom of the Ikazuchi from the grasp of women! Fortunately I've gained two comrades." Bart crossed his arms smugly and looked at Duelo and Hibiki, pointedly ignoring Ranma as he lounged across from the blond youth.  
  
"Listen would you just be quiet? And don't think I forgot about you giving me that cheap shot in the bath!" Hibiki stood up to face Bart, both men wearing the wrist restraints, Duelo and Ranma had none - apparently Magno and Buzam didn't think they qualified. As Hibiki drew his fist back to soundly throttle Bart, Ranma spoke and ended the hostilities.  
  
"Stop this fighting now! Bart's just being talkative because he's scared of what's going to happen, it's a normal reaction to the situation we're in now." Duelo looked up and smiled at him, exactly what he would have said. He was still mulling over the feel of the guard's breasts the other day when he'd set her bones and checked for internal bleeding, how the rosy pink nipple grew hard and erect when he'd messaged her with the ultrasound scope.  
  
"Wow, he's right, nothing less from the Elite." Bart swallowed hard and took Ranma aside. "Listen up, if we can break out of here and overthrow the women we could-"  
  
"Could be able to do what?" Buzam appeared in front of the bars with an escort of two guards as always. "Mr. Navigator I'd like you to come with me." Bart sweatdropped and forced a grin.  
  
"S-s-s-sure as long as it's just talking…" The bars were deactivated and Buzam turned to leave when one of the guards shrieked in fright. Turning and expecting insurrection, she was surprised when the guard pointed at the space where Ranma once was. He was gone from the cell. The two guards as well as Duelo and Hibiki were shocked by the quick movements of their comrade and looked around quickly to see where he could have gone. Buzam, annoyed by the escape more because she hadn't seen him move, turned to call Magno when Ranma appeared in her face. Nose to nose.  
  
Refusing to give into fear, Buzam calmly exhaled and regarded the escapee. Ranma had to hand it to her, this woman knew how to keep her cool. "What are you doing out of the cell?" 'And how did you manage it' she wanted to add but kept silent. "We'll speak to you later."  
  
"I'd like to examine the alien craft, it seems to have a curiously organic nature." As Ranma stared eye to eye with Buzam he could smell her perfume. Her breasts jiggled a bit as she wiped her brow and turned to her guards. Ranma licked his lips. "It could be very valuable against them if I were to take samples."  
  
"We already have two scouts taking samples of data and metals. Take him to the bridge." She motioned for the guards to take Bart to Magno and gestured to Ranma, bringing them outside of the room and out of Hibiki and Duelo's field of hearing. Ranma leaned nonchalantly against the wall as the silver-haired woman stood in front of him. "What would you do if I let you go out there?" Ranma smirked and leaned forward until their noses touched, maintaining eye contact with her shocked orbs.  
  
"Just because I'm an Elite doesn't mean I'm devoted to Tarak. I don't believe I could escape to Tarak nor would I want to…I like it here. I want to go out in a Vanguard and take samples of the enemy's outer coating, something your scouts wouldn't think of doing." Buzam didn't reply, she simply stood in front of Ranma with a smug smirk on her face.  
  
In a swift, dance-like move, Ranma pinned Buzam to the wall with his body, pushing her generous chest into his. She seemed unperturbed by his motions and tried to push him off, instead he grasped her arms. He held her wrists against the wall as he leaned in close to her face, so close she could taste his breath in her mouth. Ranma leaned further and brushed their cheeks together as her body jumped at the contact. She shivered as he whispered in her ear. "Thanks for being so accommodating." In that moment he was gone.  
  
As Ranma walked down the corridor, he smiled to himself and dispelled the next-to-useless ki he'd siphoned from the first officer.  
  
"Heh…would've thought…" Chuckling he entered the Vanguard deployment dock.  
  
---Briefing room---  
  
"Because of the size of the system it's taken some time to locate a port or node, we've begun downloading from the Dread."  
  
"What is your opinion on the technology?" Magno was busily fanning herself as many of the ship's systems were still inoperative. Parfet said she needed to stabilize the Paksis core to restart many of the essential systems.  
  
"Heavily structured. Unlike anything I've ever seen. This ship seems to be a massive factory more than anything else." Gascogne frowned as Dita's space-suited body descended on the camera and pointed at a large sector off to the side.  
  
"Can I explore over there, Gasco-san?" The ditz waved at the structure and flitted around the camera as Gascogne tapped her in the helmet, sending her careening into space.  
  
"No. For the last time, no!" Magno smiled at Dita's youthful exuberance. A chime divided her attention back to the bridge.  
  
"Yes, BC?"  
  
"I've brought our navigator." Did BC's voice sound slightly shaken or was it her imagination?  
  
"I'll be right down. I leave the rest of this to you, Gascogne."  
  
"Yes, captain." The screen winked off as Magno Vivian shifted her chair 180 degrees and rolled out a pair of durasteel blast doors and down to the bridge. She was glad to see that Ezra had installed the fan on her console.  
  
"You…ah wanted to see me?" Bart looked warily at the old woman as she whapped him soundly on the head. "What was that for?"  
  
"That was for lying. Now, we need you to control that." She gestured to the flying platform terminating in the Paksis dais. "Since you're the only one who knows how it works." Buzam walked slowly to her side, deep in thought.  
  
"Well…uh…" He had to make this good, if he didn't convince them he could end up outside the airlock without a space suit. "That's because this is a male ship so only men can control it, it seems you still need me for-" Garsus' speech was cut off as the tendrils of aqua energy swallowed him back into the virtual reality controls.  
  
Magno sighed. "I really don't understand this system…" She looked up at Buzam and saw her staring off into space. Following her gaze she saw a burning trail of fuel streak across the screen. It wasn't the child, Hibiki's Vanguard, rather it was a normal one like the hundreds they'd destroyed first trying to capture the Ikazuchi. "Who the devil is going out in a Vanguard?"  
  
"One of the Elite prisoners, Ranma, wanted to go out and collect samples from the Enemy system's hull." Buzam's eyes tended to focus longer than was necessary before turning to her captain. "I believed it was alright, he can't very well escape anywhere. And if he thinks he can do anything…" Her eye twitched at the remembrance of their closeness.  
  
"It's alright, BC, I suppose it can't do any harm." Suddenly the ship shook with the tremendous G's generated by the terrific speed they began traveling at, the star field a blur as the bridge crew braced themselves. "What's going on!?"  
  
"The system's rebooted itself! We don't have control of the ship."  
  
"Launch the markers!" Buzam cried and shortly three red pods ejected from the outer hull, floating and tumbling through space. "Hopefully Gascogne will realize that something happened."  
  
"Bart! What have you been doing!?" The blonde's image appeared on screen.  
  
"Nothing! I didn't do anything! I can't control the ship!" Bart make various grotesque panicked faces before winking out of existence. Magno frowned and placed a fresh bag of ice on her head. Just then her fan turned off.  
  
It was going to be one of those days.  
  
---Debris field---  
  
"Look, look, Gasco-san! It's Mr. Alien!" Dita was bringing a data pod from the cockpit of her Dread when the twinkling of a Vanguard appeared from the ship.  
  
"Forget the Alien, where did the ship go!? And for the last time, it's not Gasco, it's Gascogne!" The taller of the two space-suited women looked up from her interface and withdrew another data-diskette.  
  
"All I see are markers. Something must have happened." The Vanguard was getting closer, she could make out it's plain gray-looking armor.  
  
"We'd better get going then, I have all the information, we'll probably be able to catch up with the others." Gascogne threw the last disk to Dita and was picking up her equipment when plaid-circuit boards entangled her suit. She looked in horror at the system and saw Octopi sprouting every-which-way. "Damn. Dita, get the disks back to the ship!"  
  
"But…but I can't leave you here!"  
  
"Listen this isn't some kind of soap opera here, you take the disks and come back for me. I'll be fine." She sweatdropped when Dita casually entered her Dread and fired the engines, did she really think that little of her?  
  
"I'll be back for you, Gasco-san!" With that promise, Dita sped off with Octopi in hot pursuit. The Reg commander looked up at the smelting eye of the enemy system as it began dismantling itself for reconstruction.  
  
"I guess I know what you want for dinner…" She heard the Vanguard land on the outside of the ship and listened to the staccato of gunfire as the new wave of Octopi attacked Ranma's simple Vanguard. "Get your ass down here and stop this thing!" She literally screamed over all channels, hoping he heard her summons.  
  
"I'm coming. Just wait a moment." Ranma answered as he imploded six Octopi with ki cubes, an invisible prison of ki surrounding the unfortunate mecha before squeezing into a polygon the size of his fingernail, all with fantastic pyrotechnics. Speeding away as fast as his unmodified Van-Type was able, he flew into the Vandread-blasted hole in the shell and appeared above Gascogne as the cyclopean system prepared to smelt her down to her organic components.  
  
Grasping the manipulators in his, Ranma wrenched the robot free from the umbilical cord running into the (presumed) core of the Seed Ship and plucked his charge free of the circuit boards. Quickly donning space gear, Ranma opened his cockpit and let Gascogne in, both shedding the infernal suits after the atmosphere was restored.  
  
She sighed as the horrid smell of disinfectant dissipated in the air but was all too aware that she was next-to-topless, sitting in a man's lap.  
  
Ranma grasped the controls and only succeeded in pulling Gascogne closer to him as her shapely posterior ground against his crotch. He had to get enough ki between them to refuel after those cubes and if the hoards of robots were any indication, he'd need the energy soon.  
  
"What's your name?" The question struck her as odd.  
  
"Gascogne." She turned to look at him, straddling his torso as he looked at her. Not bad, not bad at all, a bit on the muscular side but then again he always did like his women strong.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, pleased to meet you." The manipulators and Octopi were getting closer. "I'm going to need your help with this…"  
  
---Ikazuchi---  
  
First it was the helmswoman, Ezra, then it was the Navi-robot #6, now he was being wrapped into performing bypasses on a space craft. Duelo looked up from his interface and looked at the girl, Parfet. Memories of what Ranma had told him about females came flooding back, could it be true? They sure weren't what the government made them out to be but then Ranma had explained that before. He wondered where the medical commander was, Buzam had taken him earlier but he hadn't returned, neither had Bart. He wiped a trail of sweat from his brow, it was nearing seventy degrees Celsius in the engine room with no sign of stopping. He looked up at Parfet's breasts swinging enticingly under the thin, wet sports bra. Duelo McFile swallowed hard as she bent over to look under a panel, exposing her glistening cleavage.  
  
It was just one of those days.  
  
---Bridge---  
  
"Captain." Magno looked out from under her ice pack. She'd pulled off the fox-eared hood of her shawl and was trying not to move when Buzam rang.  
  
"Yes, BC?"  
  
"It seems that the male Vanguard can be deployed instead of the Dreads." The Dread launch pad was blocked by the new growth of Paksis. "I'd like to ask our attacker to search for Dita and Gascogne."  
  
"That's fine, BC, I see no reason to stop you."  
  
"Yes, captain."  
  
"Oh, BC?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Why are you in the men's section?" The bridge bunnies were trying their best to stay cool, it seemed like the ship itself had a fever…if such a thing were possible.  
  
"My job is to assist you in any way, captain, Buzam out."  
  
---The holding cells---  
  
Hibiki lay down on the warm metal floor in just his loincloth, his shirt and pants rolled up as a make-shift pillow under his head. His hands were still in shackles as Buzam entered and stood proudly in front of the cell, her hand at her hip. "What do you want? Can't you turn down the heat?"  
  
"I'm afraid not. I came here to ask you a favor."  
  
"Oh? What?" He sat up and pulled on his pants.  
  
"We had to leave two of our crew at the enemy system when the Ikazuchi's computer rebooted, I'd like to ask you if you'd go out and bring them back." She clearly wasn't going to take no for an answer.  
  
Hibiki sighed and tugged at the restraints, knowing he was just going to be used by the women again.  
  
It was just going to be one of those days…  
  
---Debris field, outer rim---  
  
"Get away from me! I don't like pushy aliens!" Dita screamed as Octopi tailed her Dread, firing sporadically at the sleek craft. She had the package of data disks in a file protector under her dashboard and was following the markers back to the ship when the tell-tale glint of metal forward of her position alerted her to a pincer assault. "From the front too?!" She fired a volley of pulse bolts at the oncoming craft and was gratified by a minor explosion. "Did I get them?"  
  
"Hey! Is that any way to welcome your rescuer?" Hibiki coughed a bit of smoke from his lungs and tried to stay away from his shorting consoles.  
  
"Mr. Alien!" Dita changed her heading and gunned the accelerator as she shot forward to combine with her 'Mr. Alien'. "Let's combine!"  
  
"Ack! Anyone but her!" His bangata floundered in the vastness of space as her Dread made contact with his shield and the transformation began. He felt his seat shift upwards as the internal servos and plates that composed his cockpit shifted and allowed Dita's wide-eyed form into his lap. Two blue arms pulled out from either side of the ship as the green Paksis generators separated into two thruster / blaster silos, and wrist-mounted energy blades. The disorientating experience of combining was nothing compared to Dita bouncing happily on his lap, unknowingly awakening Mr. Happy from it's puberty-long sleep. If the ditzy red-head felt the hard rod under her ass she gave no sign.  
  
In a shift movement the Vandread sliced the Octopi to ribbons and shot back towards the Alien wreckage.  
  
Halfway there it was met by Ranma's Van-Type bangata trailing pieces of crushed Octopi behind him.  
  
"Hibiki, that thing's still active. My weapons were ineffective, it's up to you." Neither pilot of the Vandread noticed the steady breathing in the background. It seemed the colonial women liked the same things terran females enjoyed, who would've figured?  
  
"Mr. Alien?"  
  
"Uh…are you talking to me?" Ranma's voice rang through the stark white interior of the Vandread cockpit.  
  
"Uh huh, is Gasco-san alright?" The static on Ranma's end burst as Gascogne's enthusiastic cries echoed in the dark channels of space communication.  
  
"It's not Gasco…ah…it's Gascogne!" Ranma promptly shut off the signal and rocketed off for the ship, reading the marker headings as he flew with Gascogne in his lap.  
  
He and Hibiki returned to the ship at the same time, the time taken by the destruction of the Seed Ship only a few minutes which the Vandread ate up on it's way back. After the asteroid had been dealt with and the gestalt separated, both bangatas docked together. Duelo, Buzam, Parfet, and Meia were standing on the launch pad to welcome them back. Hibiki was dragged out by Dita while Ranma pulled behind him a shamefaced Gascogne who walked out of the bay stiffly, wincing as her legs rubbed together. Duelo wasn't surprised, Ranma had always boasted of his powers over the women of his past, why would these be any different?  
  
The pig-tailed Elite walked past the engineer and Dread commander, pushing towards the elevator and contenting himself with a job well done. He was sure that bangata's seat would have to be cleaned, as would his pants. Still, it was nice to know he'd broken in one of them - just to confirm for himself that they were the same. As he called the lift, it broke away from the Paksis-encrusted ceiling and two Dread pilots spilled out at his feet. He recalled the green-haired one with short hair from the first fight (he'd treated her laser burns), the blonde he couldn't identify. No sooner had they been freed from the hot and stuffy prison than they latched onto his legs, crying and thanking him.  
  
Ranma smiled as they stroked his legs in adoration.  
  
He could get used to this!  
  
---To be continued--- 


	4. And I've Lost My Way...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, Vandread is property of Pioneer, Gonzo, and Media Factory; Ranma is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and a lot more companies that I can't remember to list.  
  
---Title---  
  
Half a Vanguard Chapter Three  
  
Being the second part of the '1/2' series  
  
By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton  
  
---Aft deck---  
  
"Hmm…how about…'Dreamcatcher'?"  
  
"Pyoro, that name has already been listed."  
  
"What about 'Stargazer'?"  
  
"Already listed."  
  
"You know, you aren't the happiest robot in the world."  
  
"Bite me, Pyoro." The floating navi-robot whizzed around his head as Parfet called for more suggestions with the old-fashioned megaphone.  
  
"What about 'Kaiton'?"  
  
"You've got to be kidding…Pyoro." The egg-shaped mechanoid hopped up and down in frustration. "Will you just pick a stupid name, already?"  
  
"Okay, okay, 'Photon'." The robot scrolled the list of names on the tiny screen that made up its face until the proposal, 'Photon' was inputted at the bottom. Ranma stepped back from the automaton and looked down the hall as Jura Basil Elden and Barnette Orangello entered the corridor from the galley. He stepped behind Parfet so as not to blow out his eardrums and watched as the skimpily-dressed Mejale females stopped in front of the hopping machine.  
  
"Help us pick a name for the ship! We're holding a contest to name this new ship and the winner will receive one years worth of free food at the-"  
  
"Pyoro! You have to input your suggestion into me if you want it to be considered." Parfet lowered her megaphone and looked at the two Dread pilots, annoyed because she'd been interrupted.  
  
Jura swept a hand through her blond locks and jutted her hips out. "How about 'Fantasy Night'? Thanks Pyoro!" She began to walk back down the hallway towards the room she shared with Barnette. The brunette, meanwhile, was tapping her choice into the navi-robot's keypad.  
  
"A night of underwear, 'Lingerie'!" The egg 'bot landed back on the deck and waddled back to Parfet, the two walking away for more entrants. Ranma leaned against the wall until the galley's doors slid open and Meia walked out in her body-hugging spacesuit. After his friendly wave, the Dread pilot simply snorted in annoyance and pushed past him. Ranma grasped her arm as she passed.  
  
"Hey there, is that any way to treat a 'fellow crewmember'?" He realized it would take a while for the Mejale women to accept him and the others as actual human beings but things had begun to improve after Magno's stirring speech the other day.  
  
"Let go of me." Meia glared at the doctor as she tried to twist her limb from his grip, the rubbery suit squeaking as she struggled. "I said let go of me!" Ranma let go and the commander, in the middle of pulling her arm away, went flying back a few steps to hit the floor hard on her coccyx. The normally stoic pilot let out a painful shout as the numbing wave swept up her back.  
  
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, let me help you to your room." Ranma hauled her up off the floor and draped her arm over his shoulder as the two began towards her quarters. Meia, embarrassed and very angry not only at the impudent man but also her own stupidity, silently just bared the humiliation as she directed Ranma to her room and let him set her down on her bed. Her room was cluttered with dirty clothes, Ranma noted. "Here, it'll stop the pain." He flared his ki and his right hand burst into iridescent flames. "Now just turn over for a moment."  
  
Meia would have none of the man's help and thrashed about as he tried to roll her over, knocking her music box off the night table and onto the floor. The melody broke through her indignation and calmed her struggles. Ranma bent down and plucked the jewelry box from the pair of soiled panties it had fallen into, setting it right-side up on her nightstand once again.  
  
"'Wonderful World', isn't it? I remember this song. Very beautiful." Ranma took her calmed status and proceeded to roll her over so he could heal her bruised tailbone. She sucked in air as his hand made contact with her behind, her buttocks supple and firm from exercise, but sighed in contentment as his ki poured into her body, re-knitting bone cells and blood vessels. "See? Isn't this better than not being able to sit in your Dread for a week?"  
  
Meia grit her teeth but nodded in the affirmative.  
  
"A pretty girl like yourself shouldn't be so obstinate and bull- headed. Why don't you try to relax a bit?" Ranma stood from her bed and stood by the open door looking in at the darkened cave Meia hid herself in, the hallway lights casting his face in shadow. "As your doctor, I suggest you try to have a little fun once and awhile, it certainly can't hurt." Meia glared at her retreating back before the doors slid shut, leaving her alone with the gentle tune of 'What a Wonderful World'. 


End file.
